12/21/2005
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Memorial service today to honor deceased homeless
Days after Indy Homeless Connect, community joins together again to reflect on more than 37 lives lost
INDIANAPOLIS - Last week, hundreds of community volunteers helped serve nearly 900 of the city’s homeless as part of Indy Homeless Connect, an event providing critical services to the homeless and engaging the public in the homelessness issue. For many of the homeless attendees, the successful event was a first step toward achieving long-term stability and self-sufficiency.
However, homelessness continues to contribute to the premature deaths of many of our least fortunate citizens. At least 37 homeless or formerly homeless individuals died in Indianapolis in 2005.
The community will honor them today at a Homeless Persons’ Memorial Service.
WHEN: Today, December 21, 2005
11:00 to 11:45 a.m.
WHERE: Christ Church Cathedral
125 Monument Circle
Dan Shepley, executive director of the Coalition for Homelessness Intervention and Prevention said of the 37 known deaths, "Many of them were in their 40s or 50s and died from health problems complicated by their homelessness. We know that if we do not get people into housing and connected to proper health care and other assistance they are 3 to 4 times more likely to die prematurely than people who are housed."
Two formerly homeless persons who have been helped to attain housing and services will speak at the memorial service. Mayor Peterson, the first mayor in the nation to approve a ten year strategy for ending homelessness, will also participate in the service.
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